ace. He worked with frantic speed to keep the vines from
surrounding him. His arms were becoming tired, and the tree regenerated
faster than he could cut it down. There seemed no way of destroying it.

His only hope lay in the tree's slow movements. These were fast enough,
but nothing compared with human musculature. Barrent ducked out of a
corner in which the creeping vines were trapping him. Another sword was
lying twenty yards away, half-buried in the sand. Barrent reached it,
and heard warning shouts from the crowd. He felt a vine close around his
ankles.

He hacked at it, and other vines coiled around his waist. He dug his
heels into the sand and clashed the swords together, trying to produce a
spark.

On his first try, the sword in his right hand broke in half.

Barrent picked up the halves and kept on trying as the vines dragged him
closer to the feeding mouths. A shower of sparks flew from the clanging
steel. One of them touched a vine.

With incredible suddenness the vine burst into flame. The flame spurted
down the length of the vine to the main tree system. The five mouths
moaned as the fire leaped toward them.

If matters had been left to continue, Barrent would have been burned to
death, for the Arena was nearly filled with the highly combustible
vines. But the flames were endangering the wooden walls of the Arena.
The Tetrahyde guard detachment put the fire out in time to save both
Barrent and the spectators.

Swaying with exhaustion, Barrent stood in the center of the Arena,
wondering what would be used next against him. But nothing happened.
After a moment, a signal was made from the President's box, and the
crowd roared in applause.

The Games were over. Barrent had survived.

Still no one left his seat. The audience was waiting to see the final
disposition of Barrent, who had passed beyond the law.

He heard a low, reverent gasp from the crowd. Turning quickly, Barrent
saw a fiery dot of light appear in mid-air. It swelled, threw out
streamers of light, and gathered them in again. It grew rapidly, too
brilliant to look upon. And Barrent remembered Uncle Ingemar saying to
him, "Sometimes, The Black One rewards us by appearing in the awful
beauty of his fiery flesh. Yes, Nephew, I have actually been privileged
to see him. Two years ago he appeared at the Games, and he also appeared
the year before that...."

The dot became a red and yellow globe about twenty feet in diameter, its
lowest cur